Developing a personal cinematographic vision, understanding the film-making process and apprehending the stakes of production so as to pave the way for graduates to smoothly join professional circles – such are the main objectives of this programme. This Master course, which is unique in Europe, is aimed at the holders of a Bachelor’s degree, or with equivalent experience, wishing to further their knowledge in one of the following fields: directing, writing, editing, sound or producing.

Through courses and workshops provided by renowned lecturers in each field, the students develop a personal project throughout the curriculum. For their master project, they are involved in the production (directing, writing, editing, sound or producing) of a short, medium or full-length film of a previously set genre (fiction, documentary, TV series, art-house, transmedia…). Some films gain international visibility through renowned festivals or by being shown on TV.

This Master programme relies on a partnership between ECAL and HEAD/Geneva University of Art and Design and on collaborations with Lausanne University (UNIL), Zurich University (UZH), Zurich University of the Arts (ZHDK), the Swiss National Film Archive in Lausanne, Swiss National Broadcasting RTS, and la Manufacture
(school of performing arts) in Lausanne, University of Music Lausanne and Swiss Literature
Institute in Bienne.

Masterclass / Conference

Mumbai Grand Voyage workshop

3 weeks in Mumbai for a direction workshop lead by Anurag Kashyap

Diploma film posters

Diploma film sets

Albin

I lost my father at the age of two - too young to have kept any memories. For many years this loss haunted only my sub consciousness. Thirty years after his death, his grave was destroyed. I suddenly realize that I had never mourned my father and that I had to find out who he really was. Starting from the idea that memory is something you can question, work and modify, I decide to dive into Albin's universe to create my own memories.

Lost Exile

Emir, a family man, works for the local mafia as people smuggler between Serbia and Hungary. Hana, a young woman from Kosovo wants to flee her country and meets Emir to drive her. On the way, Emir's unscrupulous colleagues order him to stop at a motel next to the border. They see in Hana the opportunity to gain money by delivering her to a prostitution ring. That night, Emir is faced with a moral dilemma and his own humanity as Hana will test her courage to change her life and make it to Europe.

Ma Yan Chan - Waves of Transition

Since generations, the dockers and their families live and work at the Ayeyarwady riverbank in Mandalay, the ancient royal capital of Myanmar. In a time of great transition, their lifestyle is subdued to lasting transformations. Against their will, the authorities try to dislocate them into newly built concrete buildings.

2015

ImaginaSon

The ImaginaSon show is the result of a collaboration between the Swiss Cinémathèque, the students in Composing of the University of Music Lausanne (HEMU) and the students in Editing of the Ecal/Head Master in Film Studies.

Workshop Pasolini

The Master students of Mise en scène of the Lausanne University of Theatre and the film directors of Master Ecal/Head collaborated for a work shop around the critical and political impact of Pasolini’s work.

Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) Mandate

The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) asked the Master Ecal/Head for some short movies in order to enlighten the collaboration between Switzerland and Latvia. With their collaboration, the students developed some screenplays and then directed a series of short documentaries dealing with subjects like life in the Alp regions, Swiss countryside and multiculturalism. This workshop aimed to learn how to make a portrait.

2014

Workshop Great Trip in Sarajevo

Every 2 years, students are invited to take part in an ambitious work shop named « Great Trip » where they discover a land and a director. In 2014 they travelled to Sarajevo, to meet the Film Factory Students and it’s boss, the Hungarian director Bela Tarr.

Honey is sweeter than blood

18 year old Lucia is on edge. Her grandfather is seriously ill and she refuses to accept the fact that he’s dying. In an unsuccessful attempt to take her mind off it, she seeks comfort in the arms of Rabah, a local guy, with whom she has a tumultuous fling.

The Night of Songs

Created in the tradition of experimental cinema, The Night of Songs evokes at once the desperation with which we seek our origins and our intimate desire to reach toward the sky . A deported man is lost between these two worlds, these two hopes.

Muchachas

My grandmother’s death brought me back to Mexico City, where my eyes were opened as to on how unfair our relationship with the maids had been.
To what extent was I also responsible for the invisibility of these women, who had always lived around me?

Cyclic

Shot in the bike messenger scene in Lausanne, « CYCLIC » tells the story of three messengers having issues fitting into society and growing up.

A Barça

The passage of time, of the river, of the clouds. Hundreds of people rush to board a boat that will take them to work. Behind them, the dormitory town: a space beyond time where landscape and identity are ardently shaped by the ambiguities of the world of work.

Vrai/Semblable

Con la licencia de Dios

In an isolated village in the Mexican desert, Griselda lives with the wind, silence and suspended time. She looks at life with humanity and pragmatism. Her husband emigrated to the United States, and like other women in the village, the children and the old, Griselda lives in a state of waiting… The haunting presence of absence colours the portrait of this mother of a family, in her strength and fragility.

Filmer la parole

Il movimento

The “habitués” of the bar “Il Movimento” meet regularly to discuss, drink and to forget their worries. This tiny bar is particularly cosy with a warm and charming ambience. This documentary takes us through the changes of the atmosphere and the different reactions of the guests in this microcosmos, as one day, one of them – a young friend – dies unexpectedly of a heart attack.

2008

Vandalen

Sebastian and Johannes are graffiti artists and work together. But there is something else that connects them: they are in love. Nobody knows, though. This is the story of their daily struggle in a subculture that is all but gay-friendly.